Afternoon all.

Quick question; can one make an AWD auto xtype front wheel drive in the sense of removing the rear drive shaft?

Pure curiosity; as i know you can with 4x4 cars but wonder if it is the same.

Cheers,

David

 

I don't see why can you not do that, AWD is much stabler than fwd on turning, slippery road, people have to pay $2000+ more for the AWD, why would you want to do that?

 

David, that is a loaded question. With the early X-Types, it would be possible as the viscous coupling would then redirect all the power to the front wheels. But, the later cars with the improved transfer case, it would essentially result in the car being in neutral all the time as all the power would be sent to the shaft that has been disconnected.

The other thing you need to keep in mind is that you are going to have to leave the CV shafts in the rear wheels as the bearings are not meant to not have that shaft there. The shaft helps provide some of the side to side support of the bearing. If you take out the CV shaft, the bearing will have a very short life. You would then have to find new spindles to replace what is in the rear to make the car a true FWD vehicle and not have all the power train loss still.